King Arthur, and Monty Python is the secondthing you think of---you can't leave home without finding a piece of dried dough stuck to you SOMEWHERE---you see a picture ofsomebody else's doughrising, and it makes you feel happy, and a little jealous...

...You're planning the next bread you wish to bake and meticulously trying to plan your schedule around it.

...You decide to finally put your starter into the fridge but realize you really feel something is missing when you didn't have to feed it on your regular schedule. Get it out the next day, feed and feel lots better. Ahhhh...

How about when you find yourself driving over 3 hours to buy 50 pound bags of KA flour because no other food supplier near you carries it? Or spending each night reading a little bit of a bread book while your partner reads a romance novel?

you know you are a breakbaker when you are away from your kitchen for three weeks and a week before you get home - because you just can't stand it anymore - you go on the King Arthur site and order $50 worth of all different kinds of flours and grains - just to make sure you'll have it when you get home!

oh, and there will be a couple more bread books wating for me in an amazon box when I get home too.

(all I can say is at least it beats race car driving - that would be a REALLY expensive hobby, and more dangerous, although the steaming process is a bit parilous at times!)

Well they (the cookies) are a slightly modified recipe from the Cook's Illustrated Baking Illustrated book. The best part about them is instead of the standard 1T measurement for the dough to shape the cookies it uses 1/4 cup.

...when your shirts don't stay clean for more than about 3 hours after you put them on. They have starter, flour, dough, or all of the above on them because you were so involved in massaging dough that you forgot your apron.

*Looks at her shirt* yes, I think I am on my way to becoming a breadmaker :)

your sister invites you over for Easter dinner and says "can you bring some French bread with you?" Not, "have you baked bread lately." No. She just assumed I had. She did this today, I have some dough resting as I type this.

Too scary. I'm a novice and I can relate to almost everything posted here.

I overheard the neighborhood talking about us, that we were that weird family who has doesn't have even storebought bread. They have to make their own, and some of it had HORSE FEED on it! (oats and grains I assume?)

then who'd we give all that bread to! We can't eat it all! And we can't stop making just one more recipe . It's a disease! An addiction! I get it right just enough times to keep me going. Isn't it nice to have the fresh loaf, so that we know there are others out there just like us! Happy Baking!

Your husband sees you buying so much flour, he suggests that the bottom 30 inches of the new pantries be devoted to huge flour bins... and instead of rolling your eyes at his intended sarcasm you take him seriously ... and go on to explain that most of your flours need to be stored in the fridge, but that when you get your grain mill that would be a great place to store the wheat kernels.

I live alone and eat most of my own bread. So I scheme to make smaller loaves so I can eat fresh bread just about daily (but not get fat). Also, I just went online and ordered 75 pounds of whole grains. And, yes, TheFreshLoaf.com is a several-times-a-day indulgence.

-I owe a co-worker bagels. I promised I'd share, then I kept them all for myself and lied and told him they didn't come out well.

-My boyfriend doesn't think it's weird that bread can't be sliced and pizza can't be cut until I've taken a picture. The other night, he stopped me before I took a bite of burger on a homemade bun and said, "You should take a picture of that."

-You're planning your next baking project while the current dough is rising.

-You promised yourself no more baking on weeknights. You immediately broke the rule 3 days later, but thought it wasn't that bad because you pulled the bread out of the oven at midnight.

Your nickname was "slidething" becauce you play guitar and do a lot of slide style blues ~~ BUT lately it`s cuz you have a peel in your hands instead of a guitar - LOL have 8 guitars and 4 different peels - the better half likes the peels - she says they are cheaper to buy -

...you go to the hardware store for paint and screws and whatnot, but your wife ends up buying all the manly stuff while you're in the hand tools section considering which ones would make good dough implements.

...you consider those little sachets of instant yeast to be insultingly small.

...you spend several hours on the web searching for the perfect mixing bowl for your next birthday...which is 8 months away.

My dogs recycle quite a lot of my bread-- they are tuned to the sound of a bread knife too. I dice up old bread and leave it to dry for mini-treats, and my homemade dog biscuits always include a generous dollop of starter discard, as well as the occasional mush made of 'failed' bread (thanks for the tip Mini Oven!)

There's no such thing as failed bread, just you ended up with a different loaf than you intended. You can be pretty certain that somebody somewhere deliberately bakes them like that for one reason or another!

who had delayed mourning when a small building was torn down and leveled. When you were offered free bricks for your garden sidewalk, the foundation was only knee high and then you found out it was the old villiage bakery!

We had a cat who loved the meats and cheese off pizza. While he usually was happy with a bite or two, one day he wouldn't quit asking. So DH gave him a bell pepper and he loved it! He also loved the onions. In later years he developed digestive problems and the vet told him he'd have to give up beer & pizza.

Btw, please don't give your cat onion. Every little bit of onion destroys some white blood cells. We found that out later.

Oh, you guys.......................... It's all so true. I don't understand it yet, and I'm sort of scared.

You know your bread baking is an obsession when you start buying little bread tools for family and friends (none of whom have given the slightest indication of sharing your bread passion), just knowing they'll be delighted.

You have to drive from SF to LA instead of flying for Thanksgiving so you can bring the DLX to make the variety of requested breads. And you bring bannetons, flours, and a cooler to keep the SD starter happy.

-You spend dozens of hours over a hot summer thoroughly enjoying sweating and aching before, during and after digging out a 4' deep 4' wide hole in the ground, breaking up old concrete with a sledge hammer, and carrying hundreds of lbs. of salvaged sand/gravel and field stones 15' in diameter, patiently explaining to anyone who will listen WHY you are building an earth oven in your back yard upon cringing to the question "can't you buy that kind of bread at BREADSMITH" (or some such place).

-thinking "why wouldn't I order 50lbs. of artisan flour if it's a good price and on sale, too."

-planning your Sunday around firing up the outdoor oven, making breads, and pizzas later on, and more breads when the oven cools down again... and calmly answering questions about your weekend with "I made bread for 10 hours"

-you realize you better get off this thread even though you're enjoying it 'cause that sale ends in 34 minutes, and you just want to play it safe ordering through a new website

- when you couldn't bake the weekend before last because you were in S. D.(South Dakota) pheasant hunting, last weekend you were deer hunting in Mn. and you get up at 5:30 on Monday morning to start a quaruple batch of San Joaquin Sourdough just because you have to

_when you go from looking for a golden crust to seeing how dark you can get it

Your family sees the pictures on your Facebook page and volunteer you to make cinnamon rolls at the "day after the wedding breakfast" that is almost a year away.

You get invited to holiday dinners and never get to show off your other cooking talents because you "will be bringing the bread, right?".

You make special trips to the grocery store when you find out KA bread flour is on sale.

You discover after years of walking down the baking supplies aisle that your grocery store does actually carry a surprisingly decent assortment of flours beyond Gold Medal AP.

You have conversations with other shoppers in the baking supply aisle while perusing the flour selections. Honest, this happened to me two days ago. The woman saw 5 bags of KA bread flour in my cart and started asking my opinion of all sorts of baking supplies.

You consider opening your door and windows in the dead of winter while you are baking to share the wonderful aromas with your neighbors.

you live in the midwest and tell your family your going on "the best family vacation ever" and really it's a trip to vermont with a week worth you taking of baking classes scheduled at KAF and the family is hanging at the lake at the hotel waiting every day for your return to see what bread you have brought them

...it's your job as a profession to bake and you still bake bread at home on your day off

You almost start to cry when you realize that you mixed your entire sourdough starter in the bread dough and you have no backup. And then you start considering when was the last time that you have thrown away some leftover starter and if there is still a chance to rescue it from the big garbage can for whole neighbourhood.

These are all very true. We laugh but it's truth! I haven't read them all so this may be a repeat: How about when you get a slice or loaf of another bread and you can't just bite into it without inspecting it visually, turning it over, pulling back the crust, biting into it a little at a time and allowing the flavors to be on your tongue for a second before swallowing, checking everything from crust to crumb, smelling it, turning it over, holding it to the light and generally taking a full two or three minutes before actually eating it the way "normal" people do.

I have no doubt that I am now a complete bread-snob. The other day I was at the grocery store and someone was handing pieces of bread with a little cheese on top. I had to control myself not to show my horror at the quality of the bread. It looked like some slightly upscale version of Wondra. Pretty sad...

I think we are very fortunate to be able to bake and enjoy great bread. let's keep that in mind always...

I guess my obsession has been noticed by the family. My son recently delivered the grandgirls for a sleepover and begged for the just baked SD loaf as well as a raisin braid. He said the SD would go well with some Brie they were sharing with friends. I assumed that I would get to see the remainder of the loaf to check on the crumb but in fact they gave away the whole loaf. When I commented on this he said "Oh, don't worry, I told them they had to cut in in half, take a picture and post it on your bread site!" Cheeky blighter., A.

I just found this thread and I love it!!! So many of these things qualify for me. I made a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread on Saturday, and when I cut into it on Sunday and saw how pretty it looked on the inside I felt happier than I had all week. My mom jokingly called me a "bread geek" when I told her that!

At first I thought the whole "naming your SD starter" thing was kind of silly, but then I changed my mind and my dad named my starter "Harvey", so Harvey it will stay :-)

I am glad to know I am not the only one who "literally" dreams about my bread!

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